Attacks on Church From Within And Without

Acts 6:1-9, 7:51-60

This Sunday’s lectionary has us looking again into the Book of Acts.  In today’s passage we are introduced to Stephen, the Church’s first martyr.  We’ll also see how Satan attacks the early church both from within and without.  He’ll stop at nothing to try to bring the Church of Jesus Christ down.

As Chapter 6 begins the early church is maybe only a few years old.  In verse one we read of two groups of believers - the Grecian, or Hellenists, and the Hebrews.  These were both groups of believers who had come to faith in Jesus out of Jewish background.  (The ministry to the Gentiles hadn’t really started yet.  That started later, in Chapter 10.)  The “Hebrew believers” were those who lived in Judea, spoke Hebrew, and were devout followers of the Law.  The “Grecians” or ‘Hellenists” were also Jewish, but they came from what is present-day Greece, Turkey, and Syria.  They spoke Greek as their first language, and were often not quite so zealous for the Law, as they lived in the Greek culture.  Both were Jewish, though, and both had come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus.

As we read in verse 1, the widows and poor from the Greek or Hellenist believers were being overlooked and left out from the food distributions by the Hebrew or Judean believers.  This is something that should not have been happening, especially among fellow believers, and so soon after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  The Church was so brand new, but already Satan found a way to stir up dissension among the believers.  Pride and snobbery, and feelings of ethnic superiority set the one group over the other, and the Greek believers in need were getting left out.  This was becoming a big problem that eventually came to the Apostles attention.  They knew that this needed correcting, but also knew they couldn’t stop their ministry of preaching the Gospel.  The Apostles set several godly and Spirit-filled men in charge to see that this problem was rectified (vs. 2-6).

Does this problem still exist in churches today?  Maybe not in the exact specifics, but cliques, snobbery, and a “them versus us”  thinking still does.  “They” don’t look like us, or talk like us.  “They” dress too poorly.  “They” are black or white or some other nationality that “we” don’t like.  That is not right.  Everyone should be made to feel welcomed in God’s house of worship no matter who they are.  In this passage the Hebrew Judean believers looked down on the Greek believers, thinking they weren’t good enough or godly enough because they did not originally live in the Holy Land, speak Hebrew as a native tongue, and lived a “Greek” lifestyle.  We as believers need to look ourselves to see if we are doing the same with how we treat others in our churches.  Are the poor welcomed just as warmly?  How about those of a different race or ethnic background?  Jesus loves and came to save everyone, not just those who are like ourselves.  Don’t let Satan get a foothold by stirring up trouble within our churches, as there is enough coming from without.

We see that as we skip over to Chapter 7.  Stephen was one of the godly, Spirit-filled men that the Apostles had set up to help remedy the problem we just read about.  He was also a very gifted preacher and evangelist, and the Lord was using him to bring many more people to faith in Christ.  This was getting the Jewish religious leaders, those who had opposed Jesus from the start, more and more furious.  People were getting saved, including some of the Jewish priests as we see in verse 7 of chapter 6, and that angered the unbelieving Jews.  They caught and arrested Stephen on charges of blasphemy, and while on trial he used that opportunity to give a final presentation of the Gospel to those in court.  Before this time various believers had been arrested and/or beaten for Jesus’ Name.  Satan was now launching a stronger attack, and he used these Jewish leaders to have Stephen executed, the first Christian martyr.

In various places of the New Testament we read that when Jesus returned to heaven, He was seated at the right hand of God.  As Stephen is being stoned, though, he looks up and says that he sees Jesus standing at God’s right hand (vs. 55).  Standing.  I believe that Jesus was standing up to welcome home the first one who gave his life for Him.

Attacks from within the church and attacks from outside the church.  There’s not much we can do to stop attacks coming from our enemies, those who want to destroy the Church of Jesus.  As long as we are faithful to His Word, and spreading the message of salvation, those attacks will come.  We can do something, though, to stop Satan’s attacks coming from within the fellowship, by showing love for our brothers and sisters in the faith, and obeying Scripture.